Which Washington cities have the deadliest streets and roads may surprise you. Puyallup, Lynnwood and Olympia are by far the most dangerous cities for people walking and biking, as measured by the per capita number of people killed or seriously injured by car-on-pedestrian or car-on-bike crashes since January 2021.
Conversely, Central Washington’s Tri-Cities of Pasco, Richland and Kennewick are statistically very safe for human-powered travelers, as are Sammamish and Shoreline. Seattle is the 7th most dangerous city to bike, per capita, and ranks 14th for people walking.
All this according to data from the Washington State Patrol’s Collision Analysis Tool (CAT), which tallies “collision data submitted by law enforcement officers.” This article quantifies the locations of car-on-bike or pedestrian collisions which are recorded by local police, sheriff or State Patrol as ‘seriously injury’ or ‘fatal’, between the dates January 1, 2021 and July 31, 2025.
Other key findings:
- Five Washington cities rate among the 10 most dangerous for both walking and biking: Puyallup, Lynnwood, Olympia, Bremerton and Spokane.
- Solo car commuting correlates strongly with deadly and serious crashes. Rush hour is the most deadly time and the more drivers, the worse for safety.
- Crashes on state highways are by far the most likely to result in serious injury or death. Crashes on city streets – though much more frequent – are much less deadly on average. County roads are in between.
- Several of the most dangerous cities are major employment centers, with car commuters flooding the streets, including Olympia, Bremerton and Seattle.
Dangerous cities for people walking
Lynnwood and Puyallup are the most dangerous places to walk in Washington State by a wide margin, with Everett and Olympia close behind. Pedestrians are almost never maimed or killed in Sammamish, perhaps because people rarely walk there. Several east-of-Seattle suburbs have very low pedestrian carnage rates, including Bothell, Kirkland, Redmond and Bellevue. Seattle is close to the median for the 30 cities studied. Click here for an interactive map of WA’ Cities, ranked by walking danger.
